News

June 2022

Work on a major writing project has occupied most of my time this year and I look forward to being able to say more about that soon.

I did get six weeks away from my desk in April and May as unskilled labour on the rebuild of the Red House, the barn that we’re slowly turning into a schoolhouse. Mattias Olsson from Campfire Stories came to visit just as we were getting started and recorded this podcast with me.

In July, I’ll be giving a keynote at the European Ecovillage Gathering in Denmark.

Ed and I continue to release episodes of The Great Humbling every month or two.

March 2022

The days are lengthening and so is the word count. Before long, I should be able to say more about the writing project I’ve been working on this winter.

Meanwhile, I did make it as far as Eskilstuna in early February to give the Thursday keynote at Folk & Kultur. You can watch the video here. (Introduction in Swedish, my talk in English.)

January 2022

This winter, I’m mainly putting together words and sentences, with regular breaks to throw another log on the fire. By the time spring comes around, I hope to have news of what all this is building up towards.

I do have one public outing coming up, as I’m giving the Thursday keynote at Folk & Kultur 2022 (9-11 February).

I’ve voiced the audiobook of Vanessa Machado de Oliveira’s brilliant Hospicing Modernity, now available direct from North Atlantic Books, as well as through Audible and other services.

And the new series of The Great Humbling, the podcast I present with Ed Gillespie, is unfolding on a more-or-less monthly basis.

October 2021

After spending the summer working on the buildings that are becoming home to our school, the autumn has brought a turn towards writing.

A new seven-week series of Homeward Bound, our online course, will be announced soon.

And I’ve been recording the audiobook of my friend Vanessa Machado de Oliveira’s Hospicing Modernity: Facing Humanity’s Wrongs and the Implications for Social Activism for North Atlantic Books.

June 2021

Just completed a third season of The Great Humbling, the podcast I do with the futurist Ed Gillespie. Midway through teaching this spring’s Homeward Bound series with an amazing gang of participants from eighteen countries. Spending lots of time in the garden here in Östervåla.

Excited about launching Making a Living, Making a Life, a one-off supplement to Konstnären magazine in which Geska Breçevic and I bring together a group of artists from Sweden and the UK to talk about artistic livelihoods and their long-term sustainability.

Thinking about how the podcasting, writing, online teaching and community-building come together with the things we do here at the school in the next stage of this work.

April 2021

Emerging from a winter in which we moved into our new HOME in the town of Östervåla, 30 miles north of Uppsala. Join me for Homeward Bound, the live online series I’ll be teaching over seven weeks, starting in mid-May.

This month we also celebrated the launch of Walking in the Void, a book that grew out of my collaboration with the glass artists Baldwin & Guggisberg. I’m working with the Artists Association of Sweden on a project around artistic livelihoods and their long-term sustainability, as well as making an English translation of Kartan över oss for Riksteatern.

Ed Gillespie and I are midway through the third series of our podcast, The Great Humbling. And somewhere in the middle of all this, I want to find my way back to writing about climate change and ‘the cost of knowing’.

November 2020

Big news this month, as after several years of searching and waiting, we found a place to call HOME. In December, we will take ownership of two houses on a patch of land in the town of Östervåla, thirty miles northwest of Uppsala, where we’ll set about making a reality of this school called HOME.

Meanwhile, I’m counting down to the start of Homeward Bound: The Climate Sessions, a four-week online course with some of my favourite thinkers, starting on 15 November. I’ll also be teaching a one-off online workshop on the thinking of Ivan Illich on Tuesday 17 November.

The second series of The Great Humbling podcast is drawing to a close. A couple of pieces of writing from this autumn: a long read on Sweden and the pandemic and a review of Martin Shaw’s Wolferland and Alastair McIntosh’s Riders on the Storm.

November 2020

Big news this month, as after several years of searching and waiting, we found a place to call HOME. In December, we will take ownership of two houses on a patch of land in the town of Östervåla, thirty miles northwest of Uppsala, where we’ll set about making a reality of this school called HOME.

Meanwhile, I’m counting down to the start of Homeward Bound: The Climate Sessions, a four-week online course with some of my favourite thinkers, starting on 15 November. I’ll also be teaching a one-off online workshop on the thinking of Ivan Illich on Tuesday 17 November.

The second series of The Great Humbling podcast is drawing to a close. A couple of pieces of writing from this autumn: a long read on Sweden and the pandemic and a review of Martin Shaw’s Wolferland and Alastair McIntosh’s Riders on the Storm.

November 2020

Working on the final essays in the Notes From Underground series for Bella Caledonia. Plus a set of twelve short essays for a book with the glass artists Baldwin & Guggisberg and a monologue about the future for Riksteatern’s Kartan över oss.

Preparing for the next Homeward Bound online course (dates coming soon) and a second series of The Great Humbling podcast.

Looking for a place to call HOME.